Melanastera Serbina, Malenovský, Queiroz & Burckhardt

Serbina, Liliya Š., Malenovský, Igor, Queiroz, Dalva L. & Burckhardt, Daniel, 2025, Jumping plant-lice of the tribe Paurocephalini (Hemiptera: Psylloidea: Liviidae) in Brazil, Zootaxa 5585 (1), pp. 1-164 : 37-38

Melanastera Serbina, Malenovský, Queiroz & Burckhardt

Melanastera Serbina, Malenovský, Queiroz & Burckhardt in Burckhardt et al., 2023: 411. Type species: Diclidophlebia lucens Burckhardt, Hanson & Madrigal, 2005 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. Burckhardt et al. (2023).

Comments. Melanastera includes twelve previously described species of which six are from Central America, one each from Brazil, Mexico, East Africa and China, and two are fossils from Dominican amber ( Burckhardt et al. 2023, 2024a; He et al. 2024). Here, 59 new species are added, bringing the number of Brazilian species to 60 (71 spp. worldwide). Melanastera is a morphologically homogeneous genus with often small differences between closely related species. In order to keep species descriptions as brief as possible and avoid unnecessary repetition, nine species groups are defined here on the basis of morphology, most of which are artificial and reflect the structure of the key for adults rather than phylogenetic relationships. Brown & Hodkinson (1988) defined the paucipunctata - group for three Panamanian species and one each from Mexico and Puerto Rico. They did not define any other species groups and left one additional Panamanian species without group affiliation. The paucipunctata -group differs in definition and content from all species groups defined here.

For eight of the twelve previously described species we have material at hand. These species are assigned to one of our species groups and are discussed in the current study under species descriptions. For four species we lack material and the original descriptions ( Caldwell & Martorell 1952, Conconi 1972, Brown & Hodkinson 1988) do not allow us to classify them with certainty into one of the species groups. The four species develop on the following hosts not occurring in Brazil, suggesting that these psyllid taxa are not conspecific with any of the new Brazilian species described here: Miconia argentea (Sw.) DC. , host of M. fava (Brown & Hodkinson) and M. paucipunctata (Brown & Hodkinson) , Miconia umbellata (Mill.) Judd & Ionta (= Heterotrichum cymosum (Wendl. ex Spreng.) Urb. , host of M. heterotrichi (Caldwell & Martorell) ; and Miconia xalapensis (Bonpl.) M.Gómez (= Conostegia xalapensis (Bonpl.) D.Don ex DC. ), host of M. paucipunctata (Brown & Hodkinson) and M. tuxtlaensis (Conconi) .